


what doesn't kill you (might change your life)

by DawnieWrites



Series: What Doesn't Kill You [1]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-30
Updated: 2018-08-02
Packaged: 2019-06-18 22:16:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 13,557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15495867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DawnieWrites/pseuds/DawnieWrites
Summary: "Marinette wasn’t in school today. What’s going on?”“Marinette didn’t come home last night,” Sabine answers. “She’s missing.”Marinette's hands fly to her ears. Her miraculous is gone. “No. nonononono. Tikki?”“Hello, Mademoiselle Dupain-Cheng,” Marinette slowly turns her head to look over her shoulder. “Or perhaps I should address you as Mademoiselle Ladybug.”





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So I started this back in the beginning of June, kind of vaguely inspired by some ML "Ready As I'll Ever Be" animatics on Tumblr. And while parts of it were super easy to write, some parts of it fought me soso hard. So thanks to my wonderful partner musicalradiance (schnappsandrhubarbpie on Tumblr) for listening to me bitch and moan and spout headcanons and just being my sounding board for this. It's been a really long time since I actually FINISHED a fic that I set out to write that was longer than a one-shot or drabble. All of the chapters for this have been completed, but I wasn't up to posting them all in one shot. I'll post one every couple of days, along with a separate one-shot that fits in this 'verse and explains a bit of backstory I felt stood better on its own.  
> I hope you all enjoy the read :)

Alya and Nino are sitting on the front steps leading into the school with their heads bent together when Adrien returns from lunch. They look up when he stops in front of them.

“What’s going on?” he asks. Alya looks worried and tense. Next to her, Nino looks anxious and unsure of himself.

“I haven’t been able to reach Marinette all morning,” Alya answers, one hand clutching her cell phone like a lifeline. Adrien frowns. Considering they didn’t have any classes together this year, it wasn’t all that surprising that he wouldn’t have seen Marinette today. Sometimes they would have lunch together, the four of them, but Adrien had had a photo shoot during lunch hour today.

“She wasn’t in class?” he asks. Nino shakes his head. Nino and Marinette were in the same class with Chloe and some of their other friends this year, but Alya and Adrien and Sabrina had been placed in a different class, much to Chloe’s dismay. “Did you go by the bakery?”

“I didn’t have time,” Alya answers, obviously frustrated. “We’ve got that huge project due for science on Friday, so I was trying to get caught up since I’ve been watching my sisters all week. And it’s not like she’s never not answered her phone before but usually she texts or calls me back in an hour or so and she’s not the type to blow off school completely and I -” Nino’s hand on Alya’s shoulder has her snapping her mouth shut as she tries to breathe.

“Maybe she’s just sick Al,” he suggests, attempting to calm his girlfriend. “We can go by the bakery after school.”

“I’m free, so we can all go together,” Adrien offers. Alya nods, clutching her phone to her chest. Adrien plasters his model smile on his face in an attempt to reassure her as the warning bell chimes, reminding them that they still have several classes to get through before the day is over.

 

 

~*~

 

 

The bakery is closed when they arrive after school. Alya motions for the boys to follow her and she leads them around to the side door that leads straight upstairs to the Dupain-Cheng apartment. She knocks on the door. There’s the sound of footsteps and then the door is thrown open to reveal Sabine Cheng, looking hopeful. Once her eyes take in all three of them, her expression dims.

“Marinette’s not here, is she?” Alya asks. Sabine just shakes her head as Tom Dupain steps up behind his wife. He sets a comforting hand on her shoulder and the two step aside to allow the three teens into their home. “And she wasn’t in school today. What’s going on?”

“Marinette didn’t come home last night,” Sabine answers softly. Alya’s grip on her phone turns her knuckles white. “She’s missing.”

 

 

~*~

 

 

Marinette wakes up slowly. Her head feels heavy and her mouth feels fuzzy. She runs her tongue along her teeth to try and rid herself of the worst of her morning breath and winces when her attempt only makes the taste worse. She must have been more exhausted than she thought because she doesn’t even remember falling asleep.

‘ _ Wait _ ,’ her brain finally joins the rest of her in the land of consciousness. ‘ _ I  _ didn’t _ fall asleep. _ ’ she registers the feel of cool tile against her cheek and her left side through her clothes. ‘ _ Someone knocked me out!’ _ she opens her eyes and presses her hands to the floor to leverage herself into a sitting position. The room she’s in is dark, lit only by two small display cases in one corner and the dozens of dimly glowing white butterflies that are milling about the room.

“Oh no,” she breathes, her eyes going wide as her hands fly to her ears. Her miraculous is gone. “No. nonononono. Tikki?” There’s no response and Marinette doesn’t see her purse anywhere. She vaguely recalls dropping it when she was attacked and hopes that Tikki is safe. She pushes herself up to stand, leaning against the wall and trying to ignore her growing headache. From her new vantage point she can now see that only one of the display cases is empty; the other one holds her earrings.

She bolts upright and practically sprints across the room. She reaches out a hand, but before she’s close enough to touch the case - a mere two feet away - there’s some kind of an energy pulse and she’s knocked back on the floor. She skids a few feet further from the displays before coming to a stop.

Raising up onto her elbows, she hisses in pain. Her head is  _ pounding _ now, and she’s seeing stars for a minute or two before she can focus again.

“A valiant effort, Mademoiselle Dupain-Cheng,” a familiar voice comments from behind her, sending a chill down Marinette’s spine. She slowly turns her head to look over her shoulder. “Or perhaps I should address you as Mademoiselle Ladybug.”

Out of the shadows steps Hawkmoth.

 

 

~*~

 

 

_ One Month Earlier… _

“Marinette?” Tikki floats down to gently land on Marinette’s pillow, pressing against the top of Marinette’s head. Marinette ignores her kwami, curling tighter around her pillow and clenching her fist tighter around the letter she had received in the mail. “Marinette, it’s time for school.”

“I’m not going,” she mumbles, voice muffled by her pillow and nearly unintelligible.

“Marinette, you  _ have  _ to go. You have that project due  _ and _ the student council meeting at lunch.” Tikki reminds her. Marinette flops over onto her back, still not releasing her pillow. Tikki lifts herself into the air a bit before floating down to rest on Marinette’s forehead, running one hand across it in a comforting gesture. “Come on, Marinette, it’s not the end of the world. You know there will always be other opportunities.” Marinette sighs, pulling her pillow away from her face and wiping the tears from her eyes.

“I know that Tikki,” she answers, “I just...I guess I really thought that this one would really be  _ it _ . You know?”

“You really had your heart set on the program, didn’t you?” Marinette nods.

“I’ve been waiting for years to be old enough to apply and now…”

“Now it feels like all your hard work was for nothing?” Marinette nods again and Tikki nuzzles her cheek. “It’ll all work out. Don’t you worry.” Marinette smiles wetly at her kwami and sits up, holding Tikki close with one hand. She crawls out of bed to get ready for school. She doesn’t realize the letter is still in her hand until she’s sitting in the classroom, and quickly shoves it into her bag as the rest of the class starts taking their seats. She makes it almost the entire day without giving the letter another thought. She’s pretty much forgotten about it until lunchtime.

She’s leaving the student council meeting when - as per usual given her luck and lack of grace outside of the suit - she trips over nothing and goes sprawling across the floor, spilling the contents of her bag across the hall. She sighs in defeat and begins to slowly collect everything. She’s just reaching for the letter when a finely manicured hand beats her to it. She looks up to find Lila Rossi standing over her, olive eyes taking in the words on the page.

“‘Dear Mademoiselle Dupain-Cheng’,” she reads off as loudly as she can, catching the attention of every student in the hall, “‘Thank you for submitting your application to our program. At this time, we regret to inform you that you did  _ not qualify for placement _ in the  _ Ecole de la Chambre Syndicale _ ’s summer program for young designers’, oh isn’t that just  _ pathetic _ ,” she croons. “Carrying around a  _ rejection letter _ because you don’t have the sense to give up? Or is it simply because you know it’s the closest thing you’ll ever get to an acceptance letter?” Lila laughs, crumpling the letter up and letting it fall at her feet. The letter rolls to a stop at Marinette’s knees.

There are tears gathering in her eyes and she knows she doesn’t have the energy to fight them off. Everyone is staring at her - Rose, Juleka, Nino, Alya, and everyone else from their year.  _ Everyone knows she’s a failure _ . Marinette reaches for the letter, gathers her bag to her chest and sprints for the front of the school. She doesn’t even register Adrien’s voice calling after her as she rushes past him returning from lunch. All she can think about is how pathetic she feels as the tears begin to flow freely.


	2. Chapter 2

_ Present Day… _

Marinette swallows, pushing herself into an upright position and trying to form some kind of a coherent thought. All that comes out of her mouth, however, is one broken word.

“H-how?” She asks weakly. Hawk moth smiles, the sight making Marinette’s stomach churn.

“Simple process of elimination, my dear Ladybug.” His words make her want to gag. “Which student seemed to always be  _ miraculously  _ missing during akuma attacks?” He wonders exaggeratedly, “and why, one month ago, was Ladybug mysteriously nowhere to be seen when Paris needed her?”

“One month…?” Marinette frowns a moment before the realization comes to her. One month ago, Rena Rouge and Chat Noir had defeated an akuma on their own, delivering the black butterfly to Master Fu for cleansing. One month ago, Paris had come under attack once again, but Ladybug had been nowhere to be seen. Because one month ago, Marinette had gotten herself akumatized.

“You have my miraculous already, what more do you want?” Marinette snaps angrily. Hawkmoth gives her a condescending smile.

“I may have your miraculous, but as you are aware, the miraculous themselves are useless without the Kwami to whom they belong,” he practically spits. A quick glance at the display holding her earrings confirms that the gems are indeed black. “So, what I want from you, my dear Ladybug, is twofold. First, you will tell me where you’ve hidden your Kwami.”

“And second?” She asks hollowly. His smile changes, looking almost pleased, and Marinette fights the urge to throw up.

“Second, you will reveal to me the identity of Chat Noir.” Marinette frowns in confusion.

“And what makes you think I know his identity any more than I know yours?”

Hawkmoth pulls one hand out from behind his back and flicks his fingers, releasing something he had been holding. What flutters to the ground in front of Marinette is a photograph. She reaches for it with shaking fingers; in the picture is her, as Marinette, on her balcony, face screwed up in laughter. Sitting next to her in the photo with a pleased smile is the cause of her hysterics: Chat Noir. Marinette’s blood runs cold.

“I’ll give you some time to decide.” Hawkmoth says almost genially. He steps past her and presses a hand to the wall, opening a door and disappearing. Marinette pushes herself to her feet, darting over to the wall that the door had opened from and running her hands over it. After a minute or two of finding nothing, she let her hands drop, shoulders slumping. She turned her back to the wall, leaning against it and sliding down to slump on the floor, burying her head in her hands.

She was trapped.

 

~*~

 

It’s too quiet, he decides, being up here on the balcony without Marinette to tease him and laugh at his ridiculous puns. He frowns, absently trailing the claws of one hand along the leaves of one of Marinette’s favorite plants and picking up a stray drawing pencil covered in teeth marks. He smiles for a moment at the reminder of her absent-minded habit. His smile disappears as quickly as it had appeared. The police have no leads, aside from the empty alleyway where they had found Marinette’s school bag and the small purse she always carried -  _ carries _ he corrects himself mentally.  _ You don’t know that she’s gone. She’s tough, and smart. She can take care of herself. _ He clenches his fists.  _ At least until I find her. _ He turns and leaps from the balcony, intent on covering as much ground as possible until the sun comes up.

 

~*~

 

Adrien walks into class and frowns. Alya is sitting slouched at their shared desk; there are bags under her eyes and Nino is standing next to her, talking quietly with a hand on her shoulder. Alya nods and Nino presses a kiss to her forehead as Adrien approaches them.

“Still no word?” he asks. Alya just nods again.

“I couldn’t sleep last night,” Alya reveals, slouching a little further. Adrien frowns; he hadn’t slept much either, but he had been out and about as Chat Noir trying to sniff out some sort of a clue as to what, exactly had happened to Marinette. “She’s been missing almost two full days, Adrien. What if the police can’t find her? Or what if they do and she’s-?” She cuts herself off, tears gathering in her eyes. Adrien sets a comforting hand on Alya’s free shoulder as she lets the tears fall. None of them notice Chloe sitting stonily behind them, determination written all over her face as she pulled out her phone.

 

~*~

 

Marinette has no idea how much time passes before Hawkmoth returns. She dozes fitfully, curled in a sitting position, knees drawn up to her chest with her back against the wall. Once when she wakes she finds a small plate of food waiting in front of her and she eats slowly. She has no idea how the hell she’s going to get herself out of the mess she’s found herself in. She lifts her head when she hears the quiet  _ schiff _ of the hidden door opening, Hawkmoth stepping back into the room. She glares at him defiantly.

“Have you come to a decision?” Hawkmoth asks.

“Unfortunately for you, I couldn’t give you what you’re asking for even if I wanted to,” Marinette snaps, rising to her feet. “I have no idea where my kwami is and I have no idea who Chat Noir is outside of the mask. Looks like you’ll have to find some other way to get what you want.” Hawkmoth frowns at her, turning around and taking a few steps away. He turns to face the one wall in the room that looks different from the others. It’s sloped oddly, and the dim light provided by the butterflies tells Marinette that it has an odd criss-crossed design.

“Perhaps you merely need some incentive,” Hawkmoth muses. Marinette tenses as he lifts a hand. As one of the butterflies flutters over to him, the wall he’s facing shifts. Marinette can feel her mouth dropping open as the wall twists and retracts to reveal a view of Paris below. The criss-crossed design isn’t a wall; it’s a butterfly-themed window with a small opening in the center of the glass. Marinette sees the opportunity and grits her teeth. Before Hawkmoth has the chance to change the butterfly into an akuma, she takes off running.

She darts past Hawkmoth and jumps before he can think to close the window. Closing her eyes, she throws her arms up to cover her face as her body crashes through the bottom half of the glass. She lands hard on the slanted roof below and twists, hands scrabbling for purchase to stop her descent to the ground. She feels a few fingernails bend and tear but grits her teeth through the pain. She manages to slow herself enough to stop before she reaches the edge of the roof and allows herself to lay there for a full minute to catch her breath. She lifts her head to glare defiantly up at the now-broken window and that’s when she sees it: a black butterfly flying away from what she now knows is Hawkmoth’s lair.

She stands shakily and frantically looks around. There’s another roof on a shorter building a few feet away. As Ladybug, she could make that leap no problem. The real question was: could Marinette? She grits her teeth, clenches her fists, takes a few steps back, and then sprints, leaping off of the edge. She lands on the shorter building harder than she intended to, but leans into it, bending her knees and tucking into a roll to minimize the impact. She looks behind her for only a moment - the butterfly is nowhere to be seen - before she pushes up and takes off running across the rooftops.

The only thought at the front of her mind is to get as far away from Hawkmoth as she can and find Tikki.

She’s managed to cross the span of a few rooftops before she hears footsteps chasing after her. She jumps across an alley to another roof, stumbles upon landing, and feels a sharp tug at her scalp. She lets out a cry as Hawkmoth’s latest akuma grabs the place where her one of her braids turns into a ponytail and  _ yanks _ .

“Aren’t you a pretty little thing?” the akuma drawls. Marinette grunts, sinking her fingers into her hair above her hair tie and pressing against her scalp, relieving some of the pain as she sinks to her knees to try and pull out of his grip. He moves with her, forcing her down until one cheek is against the warm rooftop, pressing hard enough to bruise. She sinks the nails of her free hand into his hand and  _ pulls,  _ taking a savage satisfaction in the feeling of skin coming away beneath her fingernails. She rolls to one side as the akuma hisses and her hair is pulled from his grip, her hair-tie (and some hair, she notes with a wince) remaining behind in his closed fist. She comes to a stop on her back and promptly rolls to one side again in order to avoid the super-powered fist he aims at her face. She loses her balance and scrabbles along the roof, scraping her knee before she manages to dig in her heels. She rolls over onto her stomach and pushes herself back to her feet. Taking off at a dead sprint she desperately tries to figure out how to face an akuma without her earrings.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I ended up splitting up this super long document, it ended up as five chapters, with the first two being short-ish and the subsequent three each longer than the last. So look forward to that lol
> 
> Later today or tomorrow I'll also be posting the second story installment for the series that I wrote as a sort-of prequel to this.  
> 


	3. Chapter 3

Adrien raises his arms above his head and stretches, breathing in the dusk. The sun is only just starting to set and he’s supremely glad that he’s convinced the Gorilla to let him walk home from fencing practice - it had been especially easy since both his father and Nathalie where out of town on business. The Gorilla was always a bit more lenient without them around. There’s an odd noise above him and he looks up. There’s movement on one of the rooftops across the street from him and Adrien squints, trying to see better in the setting sun.

“Marinette?!” That’s when he notices that the figure is running away from something. Something which, upon closer inspection, Adrien is fairly certain is an akuma. As they draw nearer to him, the figure - who he’s sure is Marinette - grabs onto an antenna and uses her momentum to swing around it. She plants both feet at full speed into the akuma’s chest, shoving it backwards and causing it to fall over and off the roof. Turning in the opposite direction, she jumps to the next roof over, grabs hold of a drainpipe and slides down it into the alley below.

Adrien shakes off his surprise and practically sprints over to the alley she would have landed in. She’s doubled over, breathing heavily and trying to hide in the shadow of the building, but it’s  _ definitely _ his missing school mate. Adrien reaches out to grab her attention.

 

~*~

 

A hand lands on her shoulder and Marinette doesn’t think, she reacts. She lifts one foot to stomp on her attacker’s and drives her elbow back into their stomach. She hears them double over coughing and Marinette whirls around, fist drawn back and ready to land a blow that had every intent of knocking her attacker out cold.

“Marinette, wait!” She freezes as her attacker’s hands come up in a gesture of surrender; that’s when she realizes exactly who her ‘attacker’ is. A moment of sheer panic permeates her entire being as Adrien composes himself and stands up straight. There is an akuma chasing her, Adrien Agreste is standing right in front of her, and she doesn’t have her earrings.

‘ _ I can’t protect him _ ,’ she thinks frantically, her mind spinning; she’s still high on adrenaline and she might be close to hyperventilating, her fist still cocked back. ‘ _ Holy shit, I almost punched him!’ _ Stunned, she lets her arm fall to her side but doesn’t uncurl her fist.

“Marinette?” she blinks and refocuses on Adrien, who is cautiously reaching out a hand towards her. “Marinette, are you -? Is that  _ blood _ ?” She can hear the growing horror in his voice and idly wonders exactly how terrible she must look. She takes a deep, shuddering breath and glances around nervously.

“I -”

“Come out, come out,  _ petite mademoiselle _ .” Marinette freezes as Adrien grabs her by the shoulders and pulls her back into a darkened doorway. He twists so that she’s got her back to the door and his back is to the alley as the Akuma that had been chasing her passes by on the rooftops above. His hands are pressed against the door by her head, caging her in.

Adrien waits until he can no longer hear the akuma’s footsteps before he tilts his head back down to look at Marinette. He realizes that she’s grabbed the front of his shirt and that her hands are shaking. One of her braids has lost its tie and ribbon, there’s the beginning of a spectacular bruise on one of her cheeks, her arms are littered with small cuts and bruises, and one of her pant legs is torn, the skin beneath it scraped and bloody.

“Marinette?”

“I- I-” she bites her lip as she releases her grip on his shirt and slides down the door until she’s sitting on the ground.

“Are- are you okay?” Adrien asks softly, kneeling down in front of her. It feels like a stupid question even as the words are leaving his mouth. Marinette shakes her head, her lips a tight line.

“We should call your parents,” Adrien says, reaching for his phone in his back pocket.

“No!” Marinette lunges forward, grabbing Adrien’s wrist. “No.” She repeats a bit quieter.

“Everyone has been really worried about you, Marinette. Let me take you home and-”

“No,” she repeats more firmly. “I- I can’t. I can’t go home.” She chokes out. Her entire body is trembling, and her eyes are full of tears as she lets go of Adrien’s wrist. “I can’t go home,” she repeats, sounding almost shocked by her own words. “I  _ can’t _ .”

And then she’s crying in Adrien Agreste’s arms.

Adrien hesitates, unsure of what to do. He doesn’t think he’s ever seen Marinette cry before. After a moment he sets a hand on her shoulder to get her attention.

“We can go back to my house.” He decides.

“W-what?”

“My dad and his assistant are out of town, and we’ve got the defense system. The akuma shouldn’t think to look for you there, but if it does you should be safe.”

“Are you sure?” Marinette asks quietly. Adrien nods, standing up and grabbing Marinette’s hand to gently pull her to her feet.

“You’ll be safe there,” he repeats, starting to pull her along in the direction of the mansion.

He chooses the most indirect route possible, just in case the akuma decides to double back to look for Marinette. He knows that he should transform and help Ladybug take care of it, but Plagg hasn’t said a word about Ladybug trying to contact him, and Marinette… Adrien glances back at his classmate. Her hand is still gripped firmly in his and she looks more than a little lost as she lets herself be led to his home.

Once they reach the mansion, Adrien quickly punches his security code in to open the front gate and leads Marinette silently through the empty house to his bedroom. He texts the Gorilla with one hand as he does so, letting his trusted bodyguard know he got home safe and that he wouldn’t need him tomorrow. It’s only once he and Marinette are standing in his room does Adrien realize that he has absolutely no idea what he’s doing.

If he were Chat Noir right now the solution would have been easy: get Marinette somewhere safe and out of the way, help Ladybug defeat the akuma, wait for Ladybug’s miraculous cure to fix all the damage and heal Marinette, and then sneak by Marinette’s balcony on patrol that night to make sure she was okay. As Adrien, he feels slightly useless.

Marinette is standing in the middle of his room, shoulders hunched. She’s bruised and still a little bloody, eyes red from crying earlier, and all Adrien wants to do is help her. He makes a decision. Stepping over to her, he places a gentle hand on her shoulder to get her attention. She looks up at him and he offers what he hopes is a comforting smile.

“Why don’t you wash up? I’ll go find something to wrap your knee with.” Marinette gives a jerky nod and then something occurs to her.

“I- I don’t- I mean- clothes,” she mumbles, her cheeks going pink as she stumbles over her words. Adrien walks over to his dresser and rummages around a moment before turning and handing Marinette a clean t-shirt and a pair of his basketball shorts with ties at the waist.

“Will this work?” Marinette only nods again, taking the clothes from him and walking across the room to the bathroom. Once the door closes behind her, Adrien releases a breath he hadn’t realized that he had been holding.

“What am I doing?” he mutters as he hears the shower turn on. “Plagg? Any word from Ladybug?”

“Nothing yet,” the kwami answers, lifting himself from Adrien’s shirt pocket and floating over to his favorite hidey-hole. Adrien sighs again before going off in search of a first aid kit.

 

~*~

 

Marinette leans against the door, the borrowed clothes from Adrien clutched against her chest as she tries to calm down. She wants to cry again. She feels useless. She hasn’t felt useless in two years and now she feels as useless as a piece of fraying yarn. Something warm rolls down her cheek and she realizes that she is crying again. Wiping angrily at her cheeks, she steps away from the door and up to the mirror, placing the clothes on the counter.

She looks  _ terrible.  _ No wonder Adrien seemed a little terrified when she’d whirled on him earlier. There are small cuts and scrapes on her arms and face from when she’d jumped through the window, in addition to the beginnings of a spectacular bruise on the cheek the akuma had smashed against the rooftop. She gingerly touches her scalp where the akuma had ripped out some hair with her hair tie and winces. She reaches over to the other side, untying the ribbon and removing the hair tie from her remaining braid. She glances down at her knee, which is still leaking blood.

Marinette turns around to start the shower and adjust the temperature before carefully stripping. She steps gingerly under the warm spray, wincing and hissing as the water hits her cuts and scrapes. Once she’s adjusted to the feeling, she turns around and lifts her face to the spray, basking in the warmth of the water. She has a feeling that the night is only going to get worse, so she resolves to take this comfort while she can.

 

~*~

 

It takes him far longer than he would have liked to find any kind of first aid kit, but when Adrien finally returns to his room, the water in the bathroom is still running. Adrien sets the first aid kit on the coffee table in front of the couch and starts perusing the supplies within. Plagg abandons him in favor of cheese and his favorite hiding spot. Adrien hears the water turn off and waits patiently for Marinette to emerge. Five minutes pass. Then ten. He frowns and stands up, walking over to the bathroom to knock softly on the door.

“Marinette?” There’s a long, drawn-out moment, and then Marinette opens the door. Puberty had been kind to Adrien; he had shot up to almost six feet tall over the past year and a half, and while Marinette had had a growth spurt of her own over the past year and a half, it had been not nearly as dramatic as Adrien’s. She was practically swimming in the clothes he had lent her. The t-shirt is slipping off one of her shoulders - hanging on just high enough to be decent. An odd feeling lodges itself in Adrien’s chest and he tries not to analyze it too closely. Marinette’s wet hair is down, still wet and some of it sticks to her neck. It falls just past her shoulders and Adrien absently wonders when it got so long. “Is everything okay?” He wants to smack himself for asking such a stupid question for the second time under the given circumstances, but Marinette merely shakes her head with a small grimace.

“It’s - ah - my knee,” she murmurs, playing with the ends of her hair. He glances down, but her knees are hidden by his shorts. “It’s still bleeding,” she explains even as he finds himself kneeling to take a closer look. A large patch of skin has been scraped away and it’s red and angry, still bleeding sluggishly in a couple of places. Adrien clears his throat and stands up.

“Right. I - uh - I found a first aid kit, so I can take care of it?” he offers. Marinette nods, gingerly following him over to the couch. She sits down on the couch and Adrien takes a seat on top of the coffee table across from her. Marinette reaches for a small box of butterfly closures and starts taping up a few of the larger ones that she can reach on her arms while Adrien cuts a patch of thick gauze. Once he’s ready he reaches out and gently pulls Marinette’s injured leg up to rest on top of one of his knees.

“This might sting,” he warns, holding up a small tube of disinfectant spray. Marinette nods tightly and then he sprays twice. She lets out a sharp hiss of pain when it makes contact and lets her head fall back onto the couch while he places the gauze over the injury and tapes it in place. There are a few smaller scrapes on her other knee, he notices, not enough for gauze, but at least two of them could use a bandage. He decides to take care of the few littering her arms first. Marinette is silent as he works his way through her various injuries. He applies a few butterfly closures to some cuts near her neck and collarbone along with a couple of small band-aids near her elbows. Marinette lifts her head to look at him.

Adrien reaches out a hand, hesitates, and then swallows his doubts and follows through on his impulse. He sets his hand gently against Marinette’s bruised cheek and runs his thumb softly over her cheekbone.

“What  _ happened _ ?” Adrien asks, his voice a near whisper. Marinette turns her face away from him and Adrien lets his hand drop, frowning. “Marinette, you’ve been missing for two days.”

“Two days?” she repeats, finally looking at him again. “My parents.”

“They’re pretty much freaking out. So is Alya,” Adrien states. He pulls another butterfly closure from the box and - telegraphing his every move - carefully apples it to a large cut just above her right eye. “ _ Chloe _ even got her dad to hold a press conference.”

“I... two days?” Adrien just nods, his hand falling to grasp Marinette’s ankle still lying in his lap. She’s back to fidgeting with her hair. “It’s going to sound really strange,” she practically whispers.

“You have an akuma actively hunting you - not for the first time, if I’m not mistaken - and you think any explanation you could give me would be stranger?”

“Hawkmoth thinks I know who Chat Noir is outside of the mask,” Marinette blurts out. Adrien’s stomach drops.

“Why would he think that?” he struggles to ask. He already knows the answer.

“I - that is,” Marinette sighs and rubs at her face, hissing in pain when she irritates her bruised cheek. “We’re friends. I guess. Chat Noir and me. I - you’ve been to my house, right? Well, I have this balcony,” she continues after Adrien nods dumbly. “And one night he ended up there after a patrol because I had fallen asleep while sketching and then he just...kept visiting me? And somehow Hawkmoth found out.”

“And Hawkmoth thinks you know something.” Marinette nods, face still hidden in her hands. “And... that’s why you don’t want to go home?” he realizes. “You don’t want to lead the akuma back to your parents.” And it’s all his fault. “I - that’s-”

“Stupid?” Marinette finishes glumly, letting her hands fall back down to her lap.

“No, it’s not,” he corrects her. “From where I’m sitting, it seems pretty noble, to tell you the truth.” Marinette stares at him a long moment and then her expression softens.

“Thank you, Adrien,” she says softly. “For everything.” Adrien can feel heat rising to his face and he glances down to hide his blushing cheeks, occupying himself with bandaging the rest of the scrapes on Marinette’s leg. When he finally lifts his head again, Marinette has fallen asleep, her breathing soft and even, her face peaceful. He lowers her leg and carefully readjusts Marinette so she’s lying down instead of sitting up. He goes in search of one of the many extra blankets in his closet and drapes it over her.

If there was one word that Adrien had never thought of in relation to Marinette, it was ‘small’. She might be petite, but she was also bright and bubbly, smart, loyal, dedicated and opinionated. She had a large and cheerful personality, and a brilliant sense of humor and a sassy streak a mile wide whenever Chat Noir visited her.

In that moment, however, staring at her passed out on his couch, bruises purpling on her face and exposed arm, all Adrien can think about is how small and vulnerable she seems. He clenches his jaw and brushes a strand of hair from Marinette’s face.

“I’ll fix this,” he states, “I swear it, Princess.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this "altercation" with Adrien and the end of the last chapter with Marinette escaping Hawkmoth was one of the first things I wrote for this fic, mostly because I liked the idea of badass civilian Marinette.
> 
> Fun fact: I knew exactly how I wanted this fic to end when I started writing these scenes. So I basically wrote the end before I even wrote the actual beginning.
> 
> Check me out on Tumblr @DawnieWrites


	4. Chapter 4

Marinette opens her eyes a sliver and then closes them again, burrowing deeper into the soft blanket covering her. She winces when she accidentally brushes against her bruised cheek. She rolls onto her back and opens her eyes to an unfamiliar ceiling.

_ That’s right _ , she remembers,  _ I’m at Adrien’s _ . The Marinette from two and a half years ago - hell, even one year ago - would have been giddy at the mere thought of being in Adrien’s bedroom - of spending the night there, even. Right now, however, all Marinette can think about was how much danger she had put him in by agreeing to follow him home. She swallows guiltily and sits up. She must have fallen asleep on his couch while Adrien was bandaging her knee. His touch had been so soft and gentle and soothing, and she had been so exhausted after everything that had happened.

She curls a fist in the soft knit blanket he had draped over her and glances over her shoulder. Adrien is in bed, still sleeping, and the alarm on the nightstand blinks _0_ _ 4:26 _ . She sighs and sinks back into the couch cushions. She knows that she shouldn’t be here. She needs to talk to Master Fu, needs to get a message to Chat Noir, needs to let her parents know that she’s  _ alive _ . But she doesn’t have the slightest idea how to do any of those things. She turns to face the large floor-to-ceiling windows, sinks further into the couch cushions and lets her head fall back.

Hawkmoth knows who she is.

Marinette still can’t quite wrap her head around the fact. She and Tikki had known it was a possibility after her akumatization, and she had been so jumpy and paranoid for an entire week afterwards (a jumpiness that had not been helped by Chloe’s sudden kindness towards her), but Tikki had tried to reassure her that things were probably okay after two weeks of no attacks on her at home or at school. She had let her guard down. She couldn’t go home, she decided resolutely. Not until Hawkmoth was caught, his miraculous secured, and the man behind the mask taken into custody by the police.

There had to be something that she was missing, Marinette told herself, some obvious hint that she just wasn’t seeing. She glances over her shoulder at Adrien one more time before carefully levering herself up and off of the couch. She tiptoes over to the door and slips out of Adrien’s bedroom. She walks quietly through the empty halls until she finds herself in the front entryway, staring up at the large portrait of Adrien and his father. She frowns; neither of them looks happy - Gabriel Agreste  _ never _ looks happy - but Adrien looks upset, almost. It’s probably the only picture of Adrien she has ever seen where he doesn’t look happy. Her frown deepens.

_ That’s not true, _ she tells herself,  _ he might be smiling in all those ads and photoshoots but he’s not happy. Not really _ . After knowing Adrien as a classmate and friend for almost two years, she knows she’s seen Adrien smile -  _ really  _ smile - more than a few times at school. And it’s nothing like the model smiles he adopts when modeling for his father’s brand.

His father’s...brand. Marinette gasps, bringing up a hand to stifle the sound in the empty, echoing foyer.  _ Gabriel _ boasted two unique logos for their two unique fashion lines. And suddenly everything fit. All the puzzle pieces in Marinette’s brain start coming together and she knows with an aching certainty that she can’t stay in Adrien’s home, no matter how kind he had been to her so far. With steely resolve, she retrieves her shoes from Adrien’s room without waking him and steals from the mansion before the sun fully rises.

 

~*~

 

“Adrieeeen. Adrieeeeeeeen I’m out of cheeeeeeese.” Adrien groans and rolls over, waving an annoyed hand in the direction of Plagg’s voice. Wait.  _ Plagg _ . He sits up, looking around frantically as he grabs for Plagg to try and hide him from plain sight.

“Plagg, what are you doing?!” he hisses.

“Oh relax,” Plagg yawns, deftly dodging Adrien’s hands. “Your girlfriend’s not here.”

“She’s not my – what do you mean she’s not here?” Adrien glances to his couch to find that Marinette is indeed gone. He stares at the space dumbfounded for a full minute before his brain starts working again.

“We have to find her!” he shouts, throwing his blankets off his legs.

“But Adrien, I’m huuuuungry.”

“I’ll get you cheese later, Plagg, but Marinette needs help! Hawkmoth is after her and it’s my fault, in case you forgot. Now come on! Transform me!” Plagg gives an exaggerated groan as he’s sucked into the ring. A moment later, Chat Noir is sneaking out of the mansion.

 

~*~

 

When Marinette shows up at Master Fu’s doorstep, bruised and a bit worse for wear, he says nothing. He merely opens his door to her, closes his shop, and lets her curl up on the couch while he brews a pot of strong tea. He says nothing about her missing earrings. He says nothing at all, in fact, waiting for Marinette to break her self-imposed silence. She remains silent until her first cup of tea is empty and her second is cooling in her hands.

“I don’t know what happened to Tikki,” she says finally, her voice cracking on the kwami’s name. “Hawkmoth has my miraculous and I tried to get it back, I tried, but Tikki isn’t there.”

“This is good,” Master Fu says quietly.

“‘Good’?” Marinette repeats flatly. “What part of ‘Hawkmoth has my miraculous’ strikes you as being ‘good’?”

“He may have the earrings, but he has not managed to bind Tikki to them. As you know, without the kwami, the miraculous are merely jewelry,” Fu explains patiently, “and I trust Tikki to find shelter somewhere and make her way back to you.” Marinette frowns and curls in a bit further on herself. “In the meantime, there is an akuma on the loose.” He walks over to the gramophone that contains the box of many miraculous and carefully removes one of them from their seats. “I believe Chat Noir could use a bit more backup, don’t you?”

 

~*~

 

Adrien had spent almost all his free time yesterday well into the evening as Chat Noir, searching for Marinette with no luck. It appeared that she was pretty good at hiding when she didn’t want to be found – he hoped. He had to hope. Because if she wasn’t hiding then that meant that the akuma that had been chasing after her had found her and –

He shakes his head fiercely, straightening the collar of his shirt and reaching for his school bag. He couldn’t afford to think that way.

He’s halfway to school when a short, hunched figure steps out in front of him. He stops, surprised.

“Hello Adrien,” the old man greets with a small smile.

“Master Fu,” Adrien responds carefully. “What’s going on?” Master Fu offers a gentle smile, gesturing for Adrien to walk with him. After a long moment of silence, the old man pulls a small jar out of the bag he is carrying and offers it to Adrien. It’s covered in small seals.

“Is this -?”

“To trap an akuma.” Adrien’s head snaps up. They’ve done this once before. When Marinette had gotten akumatized while Ladybug had been out of town. It’s possible to purify an akuma without Ladybug, he and Rena had learned, it was just a much more time-consuming process.

“Does this mean that you’ve seen Ladybug?” He asks almost desperately. He hasn’t heard a single word from his partner since the appearance of the new akuma, and its worrisome.

“Our current dilemma is the akuma on the loose. I believe you are friends with the civilian it has been pursuing?”

“You’ve seen Marinette?”

“Ladybug directed her my way when it became apparent she was the akuma’s target,” the old man explains. “You must work with Rena Rouge and capture this akuma quickly.”

“I haven’t been able to track it down,” Adrien admits. “And Rena hasn’t either. It’s odd, for an akuma to hide from us.”

“Perhaps it is simply biding its time.”

“Biding its time for what?” The old man’s silence is accompanied by one raised eyebrow. “Until it can find Marinette.”

“I believe a visit from Chat Noir would do much to calm the young woman’s nerves,” Master Fu suggests. He hands Adrien a slip of paper with an address written on it as the approach the school. “Until then.” And then he’s walking away. Adrien bites his lip, torn between his desire to go to Marinette and see for himself that she is safe and the need to be seen present at school. After a long moment he sighs and ascends the stairs into the school building.

“Dude are you okay?” Nino’s voice breaks him out of his thoughts and he offers his friend a small and hopefully reassuring smile.

“Yea, just… worried,” he offers. “Did you see Alya this morning?” Nino nods, falling into step beside him as they head to the locker room.

“She finally managed to get some sleep last night. She’s been staying with Marinette’s parents and helping out a bit.”

“How are they holding up? Is the bakery still closed?” Adrien asks as he enters his locker combination.

“I think Alya said Tom is re-opening the bakery today. Sabine’s not doing too great.” Adrien bites the inside of his cheek. He wants to scream. Wants to run over to the Dupain-Cheng bakery and tell Tom and Sabine that Marinette is alive and that she’s safe and that he’s going to make sure she stays that way. That he’s going to bring her home. But he can’t. He opens his locker and freezes.

Staring back at him from the top shelf is a little red kwami with golden antennae.

 

~*~

 

Adrien keeps glancing to the clock all day. He can’t concentrate on classes, and he knows the only reasons he can get away with being so inattentive is both because he’s at the top of all his classes and all the teachers know he’s a close friend of Marinette’s. His mind keeps wandering back to the hurried conversation between himself, Plagg, and Tikki – the kwami he had found in his locker that morning.

_ “Hello Chat Noir,” the little red kwami greets tiredly. Adrien vaguely hears Nino saying he would see him at lunch and he waves absently. Plagg phases out of his school bag and zips up to the unfamiliar kwami. _

_ “Jeez, bug, what happened to you?” he asks. _

_ “I’ll be alright. But I fear that Ladybug may be in grave danger.” _

Ladybug in danger. And Adrien is sitting in a classroom being absolutely useless.

_ “We got separated. She can’t transform.” _

He clenches his fists against his thighs, waiting for the final two minutes to pass before lunch. They drag on, seemingly endless. He practically sprints from the classroom when the bell finally rings. He has to see Master Fu, has to get Tikki to him. The little kwami had looked so weak, but he has responsibilities outside of school. He wants to scream as he slides into the town car waiting for him outside of the school.

“Calm down, kid,” Plagg entreats quietly. He’s slipped from Adrien’s bag and is hiding in his hair. “Tikki just needs some food and some rest. We can leave her in your room and then head out to see the old man and your girlfriend. She’ll be fine and so will Ladybug.”

“Shouldn’t we get her to Master Fu? He can get her back to Ladybug, can’t he?”

“Tikki came to you for a reason, kid. Just trust her.” Adrien nods tightly, opening his bag to peer inside at the sleeping kwami within. “She’ll be okay.” Plagg repeats. Adrien’s not sure who he’s trying to convince.

 

~*~

 

Chat Noir lands silently on the roof of the building Master Fu had given him the address of. The sun is just starting to set but there are lights scattered about the private terrace and Marinette is sitting quietly on one of the benches. He hops down from the roof to the terrace next to her and she jumps, whirling around and jumping back away from him. He raises in hands in a non-threatening gesture.

“It’s just me,” he soothes. Marinette relaxes marginally, sitting back down and leaning against the brick wall behind her.

“Sorry, Chat, I’m just...on edge, I guess.”

“You’re entitled, I think,” he assures her. “How did you find this place?”

“Master, Fu was it?” Chat nods. “He found me. Said that you and Ladybug had sent him.”

“And you just trusted him?” Marinette shrugs.

“There was just something about him, I guess. Maybe he reminds me of my uncle.” Chat nods slowly and then takes a closer look at her. The bruise on her face is already purpling and she’s still wearing the clothes she had borrowed from Adrien. There are small bruises starting to form around the cuts littering her arms and neck and face and she looks utterly exhausted.

“I’m so sorry, Marinette.” She looks up at him.

“Why?”

“This is my fault. If I hadn’t gotten you involved, then -”

“I got me involved you dumb cat,” Marinette interrupts. “I could have kicked you off my balcony any night, but I didn’t. So just stop that right now. The only one responsible for any of this is Hawkmoth. And you’re going to stop him.”

“You sound so sure about that.”

“I am.”

“Why?”

“I trust you.” Her words hit him harder than any sucker punch and all Chat can do is blink at her. “You’ll stop this akuma, just like all of the others, and then you’ll stop Hawkmoth.”

“We haven’t been able to stop him for almost three years now,” he points out. Marinette just shrugs.

“You’ll figure it out. You always do.”

“ _ Ladybug _ always does,” he corrects. Marinette scowls at him.

“You are just as important as Ladybug is, and don’t you ever doubt that. Anyway,” she continues on before he can respond. “What’s your plan for getting this akuma off of my tail?” Chat gives her a sheepish look and scratches at his head. Marinette rolls her eyes. “Well, if you don’t have one, I think I might.”

“Really?” he asks, hand dropping to his side.

“You’re not going to like it.”

 

~*~

 

Adrien  _ hates _ this plan. It’s terrible, horrible, dangerous and - of course - the only one they have. Marinette is walking alone down the road near where he had first found her a day and a half ago, and Chat Noir is hiding silently on the rooftops, waiting for the akuma to reappear and try and snatch her up. Rena Rouge is not a fan of this plan either, fuming silently next to him and muttering about endangering civilians and stupid, headstrong lycée students. Adrien idly wonders if Rena knows Marinette outside of the mask. She had been shocked enough when she had shown up at the rendezvous point that Chat had requested she meet him at to find Marinette waiting with him.

“I don’t like this,” she snaps at him again.

“Neither do I,” he hisses back. “But she was pretty determined. And I’ve learned by now not to argue with Marinette once she’s made up her mind about something.” Rena is silent a moment and then

“So how long have you been friends with Marinette?” she asks, her curiosity getting the better of her. Chat furrows his brow in thought.

“Two years?” he finally answers. “She helped with an akuma two and a half years ago and then two years ago I somehow ended up on her balcony during a patrol. It just kind of happened. She’s easy to talk to.” Rena hums in response, eyeing him suspiciously.

“You  _ like  _ her,” she accuses, practically crowing in delight, her ears twitching happily. “You’re in  _ love  _ with a _ civilian oh my god _ .”

“Would you be quiet?” he hisses, head whipping around. “I am not - it’s not like that!” he splutters, one eye on Marinette as she darts into an alley.

“Sure, it’s not,” Rena teases, eyes sparkling. She opens her mouth to say something else when Marinette screams. They both fly into action. Marinette sprints out of the alley she had walked down, akuma hot in pursuit, and a moment later both Rena and Chat are landing on the ground between her and the akuma. It’s surprisingly easy to disarm the akuma and locate and break his item, slightly harder to catch the dangerous black butterfly in the jar Master Fu had provided. Marinette sinks to the ground in relief, leaning against a nearby building.

“It’s okay now,” Rena assures her, a gentle hand on her shoulder. “It’s over. We’ll take you home.” Marinette shakes her head.

“It’s not over,” she sighs, “Hawkmoth thinks I know who Chat Noir is. He’s never going to stop targeting me.”

“How right you are.” A new voice croons. None of them can react fast enough. Chat doesn’t see the fist that has Rena on the ground, barely registers the leg as it makes contact with his side. All he can do is curl protectively around the glass jar containing the akuma. It takes a monumental amount of effort to sit up, and the panic he feels at the sight of Marinette pinned to the wall by a hand at her throat nearly chokes him. She’s gasping for air, scrabbling at the hand against her throat, her toes barely touching the ground. The woman holding her squeezes a little tighter and Marinette blacks out.

“Marinette!” He hears Rena scream as the woman hoists Marinette over one shoulder like a sack of potatoes and  _ jumps _ up onto the roof. He barely has the presence of mind to tag her with a tracker.

“Rena,” she turns to him with panic in her eyes and he tosses her the akuma in the jar. “I’ll go! You get that to Master Fu and then meet me. Use the trackers.” She looks like she wants to protest but Adrien doesn’t have the patience. “Go!” Rena grits her teeth and does as she’s told. Chat pushes himself to his feet. He’s got two minutes left on his transformation and no camembert on his person. He’s going to have to go home first.

He knew this was a bad idea.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is the final chapter. Thank you to everyone who has been patient with my not posting this all in one shot. My work schedule and daily commute are hellish so I don't always feel like sitting down with my computer in the mornings or evenings when I spend all day at one at work.
> 
> Apologies in advance if my confrontations seem too short; I'm not the best at writing fighting or action scenes and they weren't really meant to be the total focus of this story as much as the final relationships and whatnot were. I hope you enjoy them nonetheless.
> 
> Thank you to those of you who have left me kind words and have left kudos. It means a lot to me and I hope you all enjoy the end as much as you have enjoyed the rest of it.

Marinette is jolted back into awareness roughly as the new villain drops her on the floor. She jerks Marinette’s hands up and ties them quick, efficient, and  _ tight _ . Marinette hisses as the ropes chafe against her skin. The woman - skin tinted purple and dressed in deep peacock blue from head to toe - steps away, melting back into a dark corner, and Marinette realizes she’s right back where she started a few days ago. Trapped in Hawkmoth’s lair.

“Welcome back, Mademoiselle Dupain-Cheng.” The man himself greets.

“Can’t say I’m happy to be back,” Marinette replies acerbically. Hawkmoth is silent for a long moment.

“Do you know what loss is, Mademoiselle Dupain-Cheng?” he asks finally, voice quiet. “What it truly means to lose something? Some _ one _ ?” Marinette grits her teeth.

“I suppose I can’t say that I really do,” she admits. “What does that have to do with -?”

“If you were to lose someone you loved, what would you be willing to do to bring them back? We  _ say  _ we’re willing to sacrifice anything, to  _ do anything _ . But not many mean it.” He turns around to face her. “I never say anything I do not truly mean. I promised I would protect someone, do  _ anything _ for that person. And I shall.” He meets her eyes, refusing to blink. “All of this has been to that end. So, believe me when I say that I will do  _ whatever _ it takes to get you to reveal Chat Noir’s identity to me.”

“Whatever you’re after,” Marinette starts, refusing to back down, “whatever you think you’re going to gain, is it truly worth the price you’ll have to pay to get it? Do you even know what that price is?” Hawkmoth scoffs at her.

“You understand so little,” Hawk Moth remarks condescendingly.

“I think I understand a lot more than you give me credit for,” Marinette retorts, lifting her head to meet Hawkmoth’s eyes. “ _ Monsieur Agreste _ .” Marinette lets out an empty laugh when no denial reaches her ears. “So, it’s true.” Tears well up in her eyes. “I didn’t want to believe it.”

“Disappointed?” Gabriel Agreste sneers.

“No. To tell you the truth I feel sorry. I feel sorry for Paris, that one of her brightest lights is, in reality, so dark. I feel sorry for Adrien - for  _ your son _ \- that his father has put him through so much pain and heartache. But do you know who I feel sorry for the most? I feel sorry for  _ you _ , Monsieur Agreste. Sorry that you hold so much heartache and pain of your own that you would feel the need to try and hurt others to make yourself feel better.”

“You know nothing of my pain,” Gabriel snarls, “of how much I have lost and how much I have sacrificed to regain it.”

“I know it probably won’t be worth it in the end. Especially when none of it turns out the way that you’re hoping,” Marinette shoots back. Gabriel steps towards her and raises a hand. Gripping her bound wrists, he pulls her upright.

“Who is Chat Noir?!” he demands.

“I don’t know!” Marinette bites back.

“But I do.” Hawkmoth freezes and Marinette gasps at the familiar voice. Both slowly turn their heads towards the display case, each hoping for their own reasons that their ears are deceiving them. But no - out from behind the empty display case steps the one person neither of them wanted to see, angry tears in his eyes as he clenches his fists.

“Adrien?”

 

~*~

 

Once Plagg has fueled up and Adrien has given up on trying to convince Tikki to stay at the mansion, he tracks Marinette and her captor to an old, abandoned observatory. He waits a few minutes to ensure there’s no-one around before approaching the building. He glances around, trying to find an opening and - there! The domed observatory window is broken at the bottom. He runs quietly around to the back of the building and scales the fire escape of the building next door. From there, he makes the easy leap over to the observatory’s roof. It takes a bit of effort to parkour up the tall tower to the observatory window, and he has to take great care not to cut or scratch himself on the broken glass, but soon enough he’s slipped into the dark room and hiding behind a couple of out-of-place display cases just as Hawkmoth starts in on Marinette, demanding Chat Noir’s identity. Adrien grits his teeth as Marinette remains silent.

“Whatever you’re after,” Marinette starts, catching Adrien’s attention, “whatever you think you’re going to gain, is it truly worth the price you’ll have to pay to get it? Do you even know what that price is?” Hawkmoth scoffs at her.

“You understand so little,” he remarks.

“I think I understand a lot more than you give me credit for,” Adrien hears Marinette shoot back. Adrien has the urge to facepalm; Marinette is  _ arguing with Hawkmoth _ . He swears she’s trying to give him a heart attack. He’s about ready to transform and interfere when her next words reach his ears. “ _ Monsieur Agreste _ .” Adrien inhales sharply, his eyes snapping up to Plagg and Tikki, who are both floating in front of his face. He waits, heart in his throat, hoping for a denial - any kind of denial. None comes, and he hears Marinette let out a sad little laugh as she confirms her suspicions. Adrien lets out a huff of air. He can’t focus; he feels almost numb, all the blood is pounding in his head, rushing in his ears. His father is Hawkmoth.

His  _ father _ is  _ Hawkmoth _ .

His father has been tormenting Paris for nearly three years. His father has caused so much pain and destruction. His father  _ akumatized himself _ and tried to  _ kill  _ him and tried to  _ kill _ Ladybug and  _ kidnapped Marinette. _

“Kid!” Adrien snaps to attention at Plagg’s hiss. He peeks around the corner just in time to see Hawkmoth - his  _ father _ \- haul Marinette to her feet by her bound wrists and pull her close. She grimaces at the movement.

“Who is Chat Noir?!” His father demands.

“I don’t know!” Marinette bites back defiantly. Adrien reaches a decision and stands up.

“But I do.” He states loudly, clenching his fists. Plagg is sitting on his shoulder and Tikki is hiding in his hair, silent support. Marinette and his father both turn to look at him, twin expressions of horror appearing on their features.

“Adrien?” Marinette questions, her voice breaking. Her eyes flit from his face to Plagg on his shoulder and a look of sudden understanding replaces her horror. His father says nothing, stonily silent as Adrien raises his right fist.

“Transform me!” A flash of green light and Chat Noir is standing in Adrien’s place and the look of horror on his father’s face only grows.

“Son-” He’s interrupted by Marinette’s knee landing a solid hit to his abdomen. He buckles, releasing her hands, and in the next moment Adrien finds himself being tackled to the ground behind the display cases, narrowly missing a blow aimed directly at him by his father’s minion – who he somehow hadn’t seen.

“That was so stupid!” Marinette is berating him from where she’s positioned straddling his legs. On the other side of the display, his father appears to be arguing with his minion. “Stupid and impulsive and – ooh! I could punch you right now, I really could!”

“Punch me later, Princess. Right now, you need to run.” Chat instructs, using his claws to slice through the ropes binding Marinette’s hands. She snorts.

“Not happening.”

“Marinette, you-” He cuts himself off as he grabs Marinette around the waist, rolling them both sideways and out of the way of another projectile tossed by Hawkmoth’s cohort. Marinette lets out a noise of protest.

“No! Get  _ closer  _ to the cases, not farther away!” She reaches out an arm over Chat’s shoulder and he entertains a passing thought that she must be crazy, must have hit her head.

“Marinette!” Tikki is zips out of her hiding place in his hair and Adrien is finding himself one hundred percent more confused as the kwami flies straight for Marinette and starts nuzzling her face. He watches, stunned, as some of her smaller cuts start to disappear.

“Tikki! I’m so glad you’re okay,” Marinette sighs, pulling away from Adrien to cup both hands around the kwami. She blinks back tears of relief. “Tikki, look,” Marinette pulls her hands away from her face and uses one to point at the display case which Adrien now realizes contains a pair of plain black earrings.

“Hm. Yes, well, that is a problem,” Tikki muses. And then it clicks.

“No way,” he breathes. “You’re Ladybug?!” Marinette glances back and him and grins sheepishly.

“Surprise?”

“You’ve been Ladybug this entire time?!”

“You’ve been Chat Noir this entire time! Don’t you start with me, I’m not the one who was paying civilians late night visits in costume!”

“Except you aren’t exactly a civilian!”

“You really want to have this argument now?!”

“Kind of!”

“Chat!” Another projectile comes flying at them over the top of the display cases. It goes wide, passing over their heads, but they both duck on instinct, Chat pulling Marinette closer to shield her.

“Fine! Discussion tabled. For now. How do we get your earrings back?”

“With this,” she pulls out a small piece of paper with some symbols painted on it. “Master Fu said this should break whatever Hawkmoth is using to keep us from touching the cases. You use Cataclysm and then we retreat so you can recharge.”

“You want to run away?” Chat frowns.

“Retreat. And only temporarily. Unless you have a better idea?”

“I say we end this here and now. Any idea who the akuma is?”

“One. And you’re not going to like it. I’m pretty sure that’s your father’s assistant.”

“Nathalie?” Marinette nods.

“Worse, I think she’s less a victim and more a willing participant. She doesn’t seem as needlessly destructive as other akuma we’ve faced.” Adrien purses his lips in a grimace. It makes some kind of sense, when he thinks about it; Nathalie’s number one goal is to please his father. As much as she tried to help Adrien get out from under his father’s controlling thumb occasionally, in the end she was most loyal to him.

“Either way we have to get your earrings back. And fast.”

“Agreed.”

“Do you trust me?”

“With my life,” there’s zero hesitation before her words and so much certainty in her eyes that Adrien practically melts. He sits them both up and stands, unclipping his baton from behind his back and extending it. “Stay put.” He takes the charm from Marinette’s hand and turns to face Nathalie, determination set in every feature. A moment of silence, and then they’re running at each other, neither one heeding Hawkmoth’s pleas to stop. Perhaps some of his father still remains after all, beneath the mask, he thinks idly as he and Nathalie meet blow for blow in the center of the room. They’re confrontation is brutal. He quickly learns that her feathers are not merely for show - they’re serrated and  _ sharp _ and he suffers more than one glancing blow that draws blood before he finally gets the upper hand.

He manages the grab her wrist and pull her forward. Turning, he slaps the charm to her shoulder as he throws her bodily over his shoulder - straight into the displays. She crashes through the barrier and into the stands with the full force of her weight. Glass shatters, wood splinters, and Ladybug’s earrings go flying from their perch. Hawkmoth howls.

Adrien catches sight of Marinette pushing off from the wall where he had left her as the earrings go flying through the air. She jumps with an outstretched hand and Adrien realizes her precarious situation too late as Hawkmoth throws his cane like a spear. It hits her dead on as one hand closes around the earrings and she goes crashing through the broken window, Hawkmoth’s cane clattering to the floor. Adrien screams and tries to dart after her, but Nathalie has recovered and there’s an arm securing itself around his throat, another closing vice like around his torso, holding him in place.

“NO!” he digs his claws into the arm holding him, but her grip is solid, the arm around his throat tightening. He squeezes his eyes shut against the tears he can feel gathering. He’s failed. He couldn’t protect her.

“Do you have  _ any idea what you’ve done _ ?” His father spits, venomous and angry and every inch the supervillain as Adrien opens his eyes to look at him.

“What  _ I’ve  _ done?” Adrien repeats dully. “You killed her!” he howls, struggling anew against Nathalie’s grip.

“Killed who?” a new voice asks. Adrien glances beyond his father to the window, where a blonde woman in yellow and black stripes is flying, Ladybug gripped firmly in her arms. All he can do is stare, stunned, as his heart tries to piece itself back together. Ladybug purses her lips, one hand reaching for her yo-yo and fierce determination set in every line of her body, and a moment later the room explodes into orange smoke. Rena Rouge melts out of the shadows and has Chat free in less than a minute as the new bee-themed superhero sets Ladybug down and shoots off with a fierce yell. She buzzes past Adrien’s head and tackles Nathalie to the ground. What follows is a fight so fierce and so quick that Adrien can’t even be sure of what actually happened. All he knows is that it ends with Rena Rouge subduing Nathalie with the new hero - Queen Bee, she introduces from her perch sitting on Nathalie’s back once the fighting is over and the brooch Nathalie had been transformed with shattered - while he and Ladybug -  _ Marinette _ \- go toe-to-toe with his father.

All it takes is one misstep, a Cataclysm to the floor disrupting the carefully tiled design, a flurry of Ladybug’s yo-yo, and Hawkmoth is down, lying on the floor. Even in this vulnerable state, he tries reaching for his cane, tries to fight, but Ladybug is angry, is  _ furious _ , and she cocks back a fist and knocks him out. She stands there a long moment, waiting for his transformation to fade, ignoring Rena Rouge and Queen Bee’s gasps as it does so.

“You should go,” Ladybug says, her voice almost a whisper, hands shaking as she clips her yo-yo to her belt with one and reaches out to pluck the butterfly miraculous from Gabriel Agreste’s ascot with the other.

“Ladybug-”

“You’ve got less than three minutes before your transformation times out,” she cuts him off. “The police are on their way and so are the reporters I’m sure.” She meets his gaze and holds it. “We’ll talk later, I promise.” Adrien swallow against the lump in his throat and nods harshly before he turns to start running in the direction of home. He knows she’s right. The police and reporters are going to lose their minds when they find out who Hawkmoth is, and from there it’s only a matter of time before they turn to Adrien with questions he has no answer for.

 

~*~

 

_ “We’ll talk later, I promise.” _

Later ends up being two days later. Between her parents, the police, and the reporters, Marinette doesn’t have a single opportunity to sneak away to meet Adrien until two full days after Gabriel Agreste has been arrested.

It takes more effort than Marinette would like to admit for her to evade the reporters that have set up camp outside of the Agreste Mansion. She hides in the branches of some tall trees planted on the grounds while she scopes out an entrance. That’s when she notices that Adrien has left one of the top windows open to his room. The rest of the windows are completely covered by curtains that she’s never seen before. She changes direction and swings from tree to rooftop and then through the open window. She lands silently inside of Adrien’s room and her eyes take a moment to adjust to the near-pitch darkness. The lamp on Adrien’s desk is lit, but it barely illuminated the corner it’s situated in. She can’t see Adrien anywhere.

“Adrien?”

“Up here.” A voice calls. She looks up to see two small glowing green eyes staring at her from over the banister. Adrien’s kwami. Marinette uses her yo-yo to easily cross the distance and lands on the banister next to the little black cat-like kwami. Adrien is sitting on the floor in the corner next to one of the bookshelves. His arms are crossed over his raised knees and his face is hidden against them. He’s shaking.

Marinette slides off the banister and crouches down next to him, letting her transformation drop in a flash of pink light. She vaguely notes that he’s still in the suit he had been wearing earlier in the day when he’d gone in to give his statement to the police and the reporters had caught him leaving. She sets a hand on his elbow. He lifts his head to look at her, his eyes shining with unshed tears.

“Sorry,” he breathes quietly, one hand coming up to swipe at his eyes. “It’s stupid. I shouldn’t - I mean, my face -”

“I don’t care,” Marinette interrupts, reaching out to grasp his hands. “Adrien, look at me.” He does. “You’re allowed.” His jaw tightens, his lip quivers, and then he breaks. Marinette curves her arms around him and pulls him close. His head slots neatly into the crook of her neck and the collar of her shirt is soon damp with hot tears as Adrien lets them fall. Marinette slumps against the bookshelf as Adrien’s arms curl around her back, hands fisting in the back of her shirt.

“My - father,” he gasps through his tears.

“I know,” Marinette whispers, carding one hand soothingly through Adrien’s hair. “I’ve got you.” She doesn’t tell him that everything is going to be okay. Because as much as she wants to make that promise - wants to tell him that everything is going to work out for the best - she knows that she can’t. Everything is not okay. His entire world has been flipped on its end and she has no idea how things are going to end. All she can promise him is this moment right here. She knows that there’s a conversation that needs to be had, but everything else can wait, she decides. Right now, this is what Adrien needs most - a port in the storm, a sturdy rock to lean on. And she’s going to be that. It’s the least she can do.

She’s not sure how long they stay like that, sitting on the floor curled around each other, but by the time Adrien’s tears stop the moon is high in the sky, illuminating patches of his room through the gaps in his new curtains. One of Marinette’s hands falls from his hair as he pulls away, but she leaves the other resting curved around the back of his neck.

“Feel better?” she asks quietly.

“Not really,” Adrien laughs wetly. “Thank you.”

“We’re partners,” Marinette replies, as if it really is that simple.

“Is that all we are?” Adrien asks, suddenly avoiding her eyes. Marinette reaches out with her free hand and grasps one of his, squeezing.

“You’ve been one of my closest friends for almost two years.”

“You mean Chat Noir has been Ladybug’s closest friend.”

“No,” he looks up at her, surprise evident in his features. “ _ You _ \- Adrien and Chat Noir - you’re parts of the same person. And both of those parts are incredibly dear to me. As Marinette  _ and  _ as Ladybug. You’re one of my best friends. All of the rest? We can figure it out.” Adrien stares at her a long moment and then he’s hugging her again. Marinette holds on to him just as tightly, and she knows at that moment that the two of them at least will get through this together.

 

~*~

 

Marinette is awfully quiet, Adrien notes one night as her fingers massage his scalp. In the month that has passed since his father’s arrest, Adrien’s schedule has become remarkably empty. No more photo shoots or catwalks. He stopped fencing and basketball practice after the second time he got mobbed by reporters. Instead, he spends his time after school in the company of Alya, Nino, Marinette or some combination thereof. For the first few weeks, Marinette had only been able to visit at night as Ladybug, her parents still shaken by her still-somewhat-unexplained disappearance.

Chloe had thrown a fit when her father had tried to forbid her from associating with Adrien even after the police had cleared him of any suspicion of conspiracy and had eventually gotten her way. Much to Alya and Nino’s surprise, Chloe had started joining their visits once or twice a week.

The mansion was as empty as it ever was, but it somehow didn’t feel that way. Especially on nights like this, when even after spending hours there after school, Marinette would reappear in his room as Ladybug after her parents had gone to bed. The two were currently lounging on Adrien’s bed. Marinette had a sketchbook balanced on one knee and was absently drawing one-handed, her other hand occupied in Adrien’s hair where he lay curled against her hip, having finished his physics homework hours ago. Every once in a while, her fingers will stop their ministrations and the sounds of pencil against paper will stop for a long moment before both continue again. During one of these pauses, Adrien rolls onto his back and tilts his head up to look at her. Her hair is down, the way it usually is when it’s just the two of them in these moments.

“Marinette?” She startles, hand twitching in his hair, and looks down at him. “Where’d you go?” she shakes her head.

“Just thinking,” she answers absently, setting her pencil and sketchbook to the side. She slides down the bed until she’s lying next to him and turns onto her side. Adrien rolls onto his side as well, so they’re face-to-face. He brings up one hand to rest on her cheek - briefly remembering cuts and bruises long since healed - and strokes a thumb against the soft skin there. Marinette closes her eyes and hums.

“That’s an awful serious thinking face you had on there, Princess.” He can practically see her brain working behind her closed eyelids and stays quiet, letting her work out whatever it is she wants to say. She hasn’t been awkward or nervous around Adrien for more than a year and a half, but they’ve been navigating in uncharted territory for the past month now and he knows she sometimes struggles with her words. He does the same. It’s been a process, reconciling their superhero identities with their civilian ones and redefining their relationships with each other. Finally, Marinette opens her eyes.

“We graduate in a month,” she says quietly, her hands coming up to play with the hem of his t-shirt. Adrien’s hand drifts from her face to her side, gentling up and down her back in a comforting gesture. “And all I can think about is how much everything has changed. I applied to universities with the thought that I’d have to be close by in case of Hawkmoth and any akuma. But Hawkmoth is gone.” Adrien only nods, a silent urge for her to continue. “I love Paris. I grew up here and it’s my home. But lately… lately it just,” she dips her chin, breaking their eye contact.

“It doesn’t feel so much like home anymore?” He guesses. Marinette nods. Adrien lets out a small breath. “I don’t remember the last time that Paris meant ‘home’ for me.” He admits. “I never really got to know the city in the daytime the same way that you did. My dad worked so hard to keep me isolated from the outside world. Until Chat Noir.” Marinette lifts her eyes back up to his. She knows all this. He’s told her about how liberating it was to be Chat Noir, to be running free across Paris. But his experience of Paris as Chat Noir is so different from the little of Paris he had experienced as Adrien. “And I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately too.”

“You have?” He nods again.

“My dad had me applying to business schools, but that was never really what I wanted to do. Now …”  _ Now that he’s not around, not controlling my life _ , “anyway, now I’m not sure what to do.” Marinette bites her lip.

“I’ve been thinking about leaving.” She admits finally. Adrien doesn’t react; he had a feeling this was what she had been building up to. “I got my acceptances in the mail this week, but I haven’t been  _ excited _ about any of them. And Paris doesn’t  _ need  _ Ladybug. Not in the way it did before. Hawkmoth is gone, and Rena Rouge and Queen Bee are around to handle any immediate problems.”

“Where would you go?”

“Everywhere. Anywhere. I don’t know. I want to see the world outside of Paris. And maybe it’s selfish of me but -”

“I don’t think it sounds selfish at all,” Adrien interrupts.

“Even...even if I said I wanted you to come with me?” Marinette asks quietly. Adrien falls quiet, his mouth falling open in a small ‘o’ of comprehension. After a long moment, he snakes both arms around Marinette’s waist and draws her in close. Marinette’s arms slide around his back and hold on just as tight. Adrien nuzzles her neck, breathing in deep, and for the first time in years thinks he finally feels at home.

 

~*~

 

Marinette stands in the center of her room. Her walls are empty and so is her mannequin. All her fabric and scraps have been stored away. She can faintly hear her parents downstairs in the bakery and she closes her eyes, breathing in the scent of fresh bread.

“Marinette?” She opens her eyes to find Tikki floating in front of her face. “Did you check your scores?”

“I did,” Marinette replies, “I passed. I am officially finished with lycée.” Tikki smiles and nuzzles Marinette’s cheek with a soft giggle.

“I’m so proud of you Marinette.”

“Thanks, Tikki,” Marinette lifts a hand to the little red kwami. After a moment, she frowns and pulls away. “Are you sure this is alright?” she asks.

“Of course it is Marinette. You’re Ladybug.” Tikki says, smiling widely. Marinette can’t help a small smile of her own at Tikki’s answer. She takes one last long look around her room before heading downstairs to spend the day with her parents.

 

~*~

 

She’s sitting on the platform, features hidden by a hat and sunglasses, her hair tied back in one long unassuming braid. She has a suitcase and a duffel bag piled next to her and she appears to be dozing. He approaches slowly, careful to make sure she realizes it’s him before taking a seat on the bench next to her. She lets out a long yawn.

“How long have you been here?”

“An hour or two?” she answers, glancing at the clock. “I left the house pretty early, before my parents woke up” Marinette admits, pulling off her sunglasses and turning her head to look at Adrien. He’s wearing plain clothes and a hat of his own to hide his bright hair. He hums in response. An announcement over the intercom informs them of the impending boarding of the train in front of them and they both fall quiet.

“You don’t have to do this, you know,” Marinette says finally, voice almost too quiet for Adrien to catch.

“I know I don’t  _ have _ to,” he responds easily. Marinette stares at him.

“Alright then.” And that’s that. No more questions, no more doubts, just the firm assurance that he  _ wants  _ to be there. Another announcement overhead and the two of them stand, each reaching for their bags.

“After you, M’lady,” he says almost teasingly, giving an exaggerated half-bow.

“No,” Marinette responds, her voice deadly serious. She reaches out a hand for him to take. “Together.” 

He smiles. “Always.”

Together, they board the train.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I first started this fic, other than the last bits of dialogue between Adrien and Marinette, all that I had there was a giant note that read SCHMOOPY ENDING. I hope it was schmoopy enough.
> 
> As I was writing the two scenes between Marinette and Adrien this lovely little work floated across my Tumblr dash and added some inspiration to my already (hopefully) emotional scene. I really just wanted to show the very human side of Adrien because even at 17/18 years old (which they are in this story in case I forgot to mention), you sometimes feel small and helpless and like a little kid.
> 
> Check it out: http://beautifulbusinesschild.tumblr.com/post/144130806312/you-dont-have-to-hide-how-you-feel-around-me

**Author's Note:**

> also on Tumblr: http://dawniewrites.tumblr.com/


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